White Sox: Top 5 international signings in the amateur draft era
The Chicago White Sox landed 2 of the top international free agents on Friday, but how has the franchise fared with those signings since the draft began?
The Chicago White Sox made some noise Friday with the signing of MLB.com’s top-rated international prospect, Cuban outfielder Yoelqui Cespedes, which got us thinking about the best international free agents the White Sox have discovered since 1965.
Why 1965? Because that was the year MLB instituted its Amateur Draft and international free agents because an official thing in baseball. Prior to the draft, every prospect signed as a free agent (which is why the more successful teams of those bygone eras tended to remain more successful — sort of like college football recruiting today).
More from Southside Showdown
- The Chicago White Sox might have had a season ending loss
- The Chicago White Sox are expecting Tim Anderson back soon
- Miguel Cairo’s words spark life into the Chicago White Sox
- Dylan Cease should be the favorite for the AL Cy Young Award
- Ozzie Guillen speaks the whole truth about Tony La Russa
The Amateur Draft pool is made up of players from the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. Players not from those countries or territory fall into the international free agent pool.
While the White Sox have some huge successes recently in the international free agent arena, it is actually not an area the franchise has been particularly strong over the 55 years since the dawn of the Amateur Draft era and this is a list that will likely look significantly different just a few years from now.
Chicago did, however, have some notable signings in the pre-draft era. That group was headlined by Hall of Fame shortstop Luis Aparicio, signed as a 19-year-old from Venezuela during the offseason before the 1954 season. That came after a strong showing in the 1953 Baseball Amateur World Series, held in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.
Friday’s signing of Cespedes included a reported $2.05 million bonus. Aparicio, on the other hand, got $10,000 for putting his signature on the contract sent to him by then-White Sox general manager Frank Lane.
One player that won’t appear on this list is another top-notch shortstop on the South Side who later led the White Sox to a World Series title.
Ozzie Guillen made his big-league debut with Chicago in 1985 and earned Rookie of the Year honors, but the Venezuelan originally signed with the San Diego Padres in December 1980 and came to the White Sox in the LaMarr Hoyt trade in December 1984.
Here are the five best international signings by the Chicago White Sox, based on what they did for the Sox.
128. . 2B-OF. Chicago White Sox. Jorge Orta. 5. player
Jorge Orta was 21 years old and had spent time with both Tuneros de San Luis and the Mexicali Aguilas in Mexico’s Center and Northern leagues when the Chicago White Sox came calling in November 1971.
Just 10 days after his 21st birthday, on Nov. 30, 1971, the White Sox purchased Orta’s rights from Mexicali and he impressed enough in his first spring training camp to make the opening day roster in 1972. Used as a utility infielder, Orta struggled at the plate, slashing just .191/.216/.277 before he was sent to Triple-A Knoxville in early July.
Chicago White Sox
He came back when rosters expanded on Sept. 1 and was better down the stretch, posting a slash line of .233/.324/.433 over his final 16 games. On the year, he hit .202/.244/.315 in 133 plate appearances, with three homers, 11 RBI and 37 strikeouts against just six walks.
The White Sox, meanwhile, were a surprise contender in the American League West, finishing just 5½ games in back of the eventual World Champion Oakland A’s.
Orta landed the regular job at second base in 1973 and held that spot for much of his remaining tenure with the White Sox, although he was a regular utility player — starting games at third base and both outfield corners — before moving back to second base the following season.
He represented Chicago at the 1975 All-Star Game at Milwaukee County Stadium, but did not get into the game.
Orta topped the .300 mark at the plate twice in his tenure, finishing second in the American League with a .316 average in 1974 and topping the mark again in1975. Orta clubbed a career-high 14 home runs in 1976, while driving in a career-best 84 runs the following season when the White Sox went from 64 wins to 90, leading the division as late as Aug. 19.
Orta became a free agent after the 1979 season and signed with the Cleveland Indians, where he played two seasons. He also spent time with the Los Angeles Dodgers (1982), Toronto Blue Jays (1983) and Kansas City Royals (1984-87).
In eight seasons with the White Sox, Orta slashed .281/.338/.418 with 79 homers and 456 RBI, striking out 477 times and drawing 301 walks in 990 games.
Chicago White Sox. Carlos Lee. 4. player. 128. . LF
After signing with the Chicago White Sox as an 18-year-old in February 1994, Panamanian native Carlos Lee needed some time to develop. He spent five seasons in the minor leagues before making his big league debut on May 7, 1999, against the Oakland A’s. He started his career with a bang, taking knuckleballer Tom Candiotti deep in his first major league at-bat.
The homers kept on coming over Lee’s six seasons in Chicago, 152 of them in all, which is 10th on the franchise’s all-time list, per Baseball-Reference.com. Lee’s homer totals climbed throughout his time with the White Sox, from 16 as a rookie to 24 in each of the next two seasons, 26 in 2002 and 31 in both 2003 and 2004.
For his 6-foot-2, 270-pound frame, Lee was a surprisingly nimble baserunner as well, stealing 18 bases in 22 attempts in 2003 and swiping a total of 64 bags in his six seasons with the Sox. And he was durable, never playing less than 140 games in a season after his shortened rookie season, when he played in 127 contests after a late start.
Lee drove in 113 runs in 2003 and topped the 100 runs scored mark three times, including a career-high 107 in 2000, when Chicago won the American League Central Division before being swept by the wild-card Seattle Mariners in the ALDS.
But Lee missed out on the World Series hoopla of 2005, as he was dealt to the Milwaukee Brewers in a four-player trade on Dec. 13, 2004. The White Sox got back sparkplug center fielder Scott Podsednik and middle reliever Luis Vizcaino, while also getting minor league Travis Hinton a month later to complete the deal.
From 1999-2004, Lee slashed .288/.340/.488 in 880 games, with 192 doubles and 152 homers to go with 552 RBI, 255 walks and 501 strikeouts in 3,647 plate appearances.
Lee was only in Milwaukee for a season and a half before he was traded to the Texas Rangers before hitting free agency in the fall of 2006. Lee spent most of the next six seasons with the Houston Astros before being traded on July 4, 2012, to the Miami Marlins. He became a free agent after the 2012 season and faded into retirement.
128. . SS-2B. Chicago White Sox. Alexei Ramirez. 3. player
Alexei Ramirez was already a veteran of seven seasons in the Cuban National Series before he defected to the Dominican Republic in September 2007. By the time he left Cuba after the 2006-07 season, Ramirez was the top slugger in the country, hitting 20 home runs in 89 games while slashing .335/.437/.574.
The Chicago White Sox signed the 26-year-old Ramirez in January 2008 and he immediately found himself in the lineup, making his debut on opening night in 2008, playing center field against the Cleveland Indians. He would up starting 117 games at second base that season and finished second in the Rookie of the Year race behind Dustin Pedroia of the Boston Red Sox.
The White Sox won the American League Central that season, beating the Minnesota Twins 1-0 in a one-game playoff in Chicago, but were bounced in four games by the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS.
Ramirez was never quite the slugger in the majors that he was in Cuba, but he did belt 109 homers in his eight seasons with the White Sox, including a career-high 21 as a rookie, when he also had a career-best 77 RBI.
Ramirez clubbed 39 doubles and stole 30 bases in 2013 and made his lone All-Star appearance in 2014, going 1-for-2 in the AL’s 5-3 win at Target Field in Minneapolis.
He became a free agent in November 2015 and signed with the San Diego Padres, but was released in early September 2016 and finished his major-league career with the Rays to close out that season.
Unsigned as a free agent after the 2016 campaign, Ramirez made a comeback with Diablos Rojos del Mexico in both the Mexican spring and autumn leagues, slashing .303/.359/.418 in 93 games before retiring for good at age 36.
Over his eight seasons with Chicago, Ramirez slashed .273/.310/.399 in 1,226 games, hitting 109 homers with 542 RBI in 4,999 plate appearances. He fanned 587 times and drew 242 walks while scoring 563 runs and swiping 135 bases.
. 1B. Chicago White Sox. Jose Abreu. 2. player. 128
Jose Abreu didn’t make his major league debut with the Chicago White Sox until he was already 27 years old, but in the seven years since he’s done nothing but make up for lost time.
Abreu defected from the Cuban National Team to Haiti in August 2013, per Dionisio Soldevila of ESPN Deportes and signed with the White Sox a little more than two months later.
He made an immediate splash, earning an All-Star Game selection as a rookie in 2014. When the season was in the books, Abreu was named American League Rookie of the Year and finished fourth in the MVP voting after slashing .317/.383/.581 in 145 games, clubbing 36 homers with 107 RBI in 622 plate appearances.
The power production wasn’t a surprise based on what he had done in Cuba, where he hit 178 home runs in 640 games over 10 seasons with Cienfuegos in the Cuban National Series, including three straight seasons of 30 or more long bombs from 2009-10 through 2011-12. In 2010-11, Abreu hit an other-worldly 33 homers in just 66 games.
As a rookie, Abreu led the AL in slugging and OPS+ (173) and hasn’t stopped. Last season, Abreu became the first White Sox player to be named AL MVP since Frank Thomas in 1994 and became the first player in franchise history to win both the Rookie of the Year and MVP award with the team.
During the COVID-19 shortened campaign, Abreu played in all 60 games and slashed .317/.370/.617 with 19 homers and a league-high 60 RBI in 262 plate appearances. He also led the league with 76 hits, a .617 slugging percentage and 148 total bases. It was his second straight RBI crown after knocking home 123 runs in 2019.
Abreu will be 34 years old later this month and is entering the second year of a three-year contract he signed as a free agent after the 2019 season. He is scheduled to earn nearly $17.7 million this season and almost $19.7 million in 2022.
Abreu is a three-time All-Star and in seven seasons has slashed .294/.350/.520 with 198 home runs and 671 RBI in 961 games. He has 835 strikeouts and 263 walks in 4,168 plate appearances. Abreu also led the AL in total bases in 2017 with 343, a season during which he belted a career-high 43 doubles and six triples.
. RF. Chicago White Sox. Magglio Ordonez. 1. player. 128
Like teammate Carlos Lee, Magglio Ordonez just missed out on the World Series thrills in 2005, having left the team as a free agent after an injury-shortened 2004 campaign.
Ordonez signed with the Chicago White Sox as a 17-year-old in May 1991 and ground out five seasons in the minors before reading the big leagues in late August 1997. He started hitting almost immediately and kept right on hitting through eight seasons on the South Side.
The right-handed slugger posted four straight 30-homer seasons from 1999-2002 and just missed a fifth with 29 long bombs in 2003. He was also picked for four All-Star games during that span and, before his knees began to bother him, Ordonez stole 25 bases in 2001.
Ordonez never hit less than .282 with the White Sox, that coming in his official rookie season of 1998 before he embarked on a string of five straight seasons hitting .300 or better.
He became a free agent after the 2004 season and Chicago opted to let him walk after a knee injury limited him to just 52 games. It seemed like a good move at first, as injuries limited Ordonez to just 82 games in 2005, but he put together two more All-Star level seasons for the Detroit Tigers in 2006 and 2007.
In the latter of those seasons, Ordonez led the AL with a .363 average and 54 doubles while posting a career-high 139 RBI.
In eight seasons with the White Sox, Ordonez slashed .307/.364/.525 in 1,001 games, with 187 home runs, 703 RBI and just 431 strikeouts in 4,214 plate appearances. He also drew 333 walks and stole 82 bases.
Top 5 free agent signings in Sox history. dark. Next
Ordonez spent seven seasons with the Tigers before retiring at age 37 following the 2011 season.